THE TRAIN
said Katya's mother. "And this is the thanks we've got;
it's beyond me, in my day a young girl would never
have behaved like that/'
"I don't understand what you're talking about," said
Lena, "I haven't done anything."
"Now don't you try to make excuses, my dear. It's
always the woman who's to blame in these cases. A
young fellow—he's like a calf, where you pull him,
there he'll go."
"You don't mean to say," asked Lena in astonish-
ment, "that you think I'm in love with Katya's fiance?"
She burst out laughing. "I've never given him a
thought."
"Nobody says that you're in love with him, my girl,"
replied Katya's mother. "But since he's in love with
you, I must say that I don't think you've behaved very
well"
Katya laid her head on the table and sobbed.
"I don't know anything about it," said Lena, a ring
of anger in her voice. "He can go to the devil for all I
care, what possessed him to pick on me?"
"That's just the question, what possessed him? A
young fellow, doesn't drink, good-looking, earning good
money. ..."
Lena went into the room she shared with Katya and
lay down on the bed. People are all right so long as you
don't get too close to them. Now all that she wanted
was to get out of the house.
Katya came in, sat down and put her arms round
Lena.
"Don't be angry with my mother," she said. "I know
it isn't your fault. All men are brutes, that's all."
Lena remembered the "swine" and his mutton. She
laughed, Katya kissed her, proud of her own generosity.
They went into supper and Lena drank her milk. She
thought to herself—"I've had enough of this. I'U go."
A couple of days later she received a long love-letter
from Katya's fiance. She tore it into fragments and
returned to the hostel.
4.0